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Big 89 Rewind

Tom Wells said:
Cripes! Why don't they just stream audio from a air monitor next time?
I assure the stream listeners the AM did not drop out even once that I heard.
Had hum, but no dropouts.
Click to expand...

The problem is the commercials. AFTRA, as part of their agreement, require compensation for webcasting.

The stream problems were all over the place. Just taking a wild guess the reverb was mic only and returned on a fader on the board. During quiet songs, like "Dreams", you could hear chatter through the return. The loss of music may have been as simple as the engineer taking the fader out of the mix and forgetting to activate it again. The stereo issue seemed sporadic.
 
radiorob2.0 said:
Tom Wells said:
Cripes! Why don't they just stream audio from a air monitor next time?
I assure the stream listeners the AM did not drop out even once that I heard.
Had hum, but no dropouts.
Click to expand...

The problem is the commercials. AFTRA, as part of their agreement, require compensation for webcasting.

The stream problems were all over the place. Just taking a wild guess the reverb was mic only and returned on a fader on the board. During quiet songs, like "Dreams", you could hear chatter through the return. The loss of music may have been as simple as the engineer taking the fader out of the mix and forgetting to activate it again. The stereo issue seemed sporadic.
Click to expand...

Well, streaming an on-air sound and covering up the commercials can be accomplished. My station's stream sounds on-air processed and everything is audible. I'm in a 100+ market too. You would think Chicago could get it right.
 
Re: Life is a Rock, W-L-S Rolled Me!

MN Maniac said:
America's "A Horse With No Name" was played during Chuck Knapp's shift. I could have swore I heard clicks, pops, and scratches. As in the kind we used to get from vinyl records. WLS doesn't still have a turntable in the air studio, DO they?
Click to expand...

If they do, it had darn well better been operated by an AFM member,
or else Petrillo will rise from his grave and call a record turner strike! ;D
 
RadioMahn said:
Am I the only one who couldn't hear some of the songs? It sounded like a cd machine or other audio source wasn't patched through to the web stream. On about every 3rd or 4th song I would hear a jingle at regular volume and then 3 minutes of virtual silence. The song was there but barely audible. I could hear JRL open the mic and tap his fingers waiting for the end of the song to talk. Was this just my connection? I only noticed it on Landecker's shift.

Otherwise, it sounded great to hear Music Radio again this Memorial Day.
Click to expand...

From the pictures, it looks like their control room is a PR&E board.....thus using SENDS (separate feeds along with the main program feed to the transmitter) normally used to feed audio to remote talent in the field via ISDN, etc IFB.....I BET one SEND was turned down or the button wasnt pushed down on that channel...also some music only played ONE channel (left or right instead of both)....Poor board ops....
after hearing Tommy and Uncle Lar complain about the reverb, I would say TAKE IT OFF next year......and leave it off.....the station SHOULD sound like it did THEN....not retro with REVERB overpowering everything (Warren Schultz at WLS, are you listening???? :) Sorry but all my remote broadcast when I engineered fulltime NEVER EVER sounded like that....they were flawless and it doesnt take rocket science to make sure it does......
 
Loved the Rewind, but I have some questions about WLS as it exists now...which is sadly very different from the way it existed when these guys were working there.

1. Does WLS sound this loose and sloppy now all the time? Dead air between every spot. The ends chopped off of some of the spots. The mics turned off on the jocks abruptly. What is going on there??? They have all of this fancy expensive digital equipment now, but the station sounded far more tight and professional with the old analog carts 35 years ago! Is there a problem with their digital equipment, or don't they have people who know how to use it?

2. Does WLS still have any national advertising clients? Car companies are buying time all over media outlets now, yet all I heard on WLS during Rewind was local advertising for things like local restaurants and concrete companies. It sounded like the "dollar a hollar" stations in the little county seats. (Yes, I know Chicago is county seat of Cook County, but you get the idea.) In addition, the same spots ran over and over, much like the little stations where we all started. I couldn't believe I was hearing this on a 50 KW Network O&O (well, it was...and still is sorta) signal in Market #3!

3. Does WLS have more than one production person? I kept hearing the same voice on those local spots, sometimes back to back. Granted, it was a very professional sounding production person, but it sounds very small market to hear the same voice on every spot. Did Citadel let everyone else go?

I can't help feeling that the former WLS jocks and PDs must have been pretty embarrassed by the way the station sounded during Rewind. It sure never sounded like that when they were working there and WLS was on top of the charts.

On a positive note, the jocks sounded great and hearing the music and the jingles again was a real blast!
 
CatFM said:
Loved the Rewind, but I have some questions about WLS as it exists now...which is sadly very different from the way it existed when these guys were working there.

2. Does WLS still have any national advertising clients? Car companies are buying time all over media outlets now, yet all I heard on WLS during Rewind was local advertising for things like local restaurants and concrete companies. It sounded like the "dollar a hollar" stations in the little county seats. (Yes, I know Chicago is county seat of Cook County, but you get the idea.) In addition, the same spots ran over and over, much like the little stations where we all started. I couldn't believe I was hearing this on a 50 KW Network O&O (well, it was...and still is sorta) signal in Market #3!

3. Does WLS have more than one production person? I kept hearing the same voice on those local spots, sometimes back to back. Granted, it was a very professional sounding production person, but it sounds very small market to hear the same voice on every spot. Did Citadel let everyone else go?
Click to expand...

Were you listening to the web stream? The on-air spots breaks probably contained more national spots. Still, the web stream breaks should sound decent even if they do feature more local clients.
 
CyBeer said:
Is there any VIDEO from the day shown online now?....or pictures?..
Click to expand...


Landecker was bantering on-air with Art Vuolo, so I'm sure there will be a complete DVD released at a future date.

Art also did the 2007 WLS Rewind. Good stuff!
 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
CyBeer said:
Is there any VIDEO from the day shown online now?....or pictures?..
Click to expand...

I'm sure Art Vuolo taped it for posterity!
Click to expand...
YES Art was there...in fact, Landecker REWOUND himself because Art had missed the start of a bit...so they REran the intro etc AFTER they did it just so Art could get it on tape :)

Look for it for sale on wlsam.com later on.......last years is still available I think....
 
Phil said:
You can count every turn in the reverb's spring... And, I think the stream they used last year had better audio, better processing and fewer dropouts. The stream last year had no reverb, BTW.
I don't recall reverb on 'LS. When did they use it, or was it set so subtly that 'you notice it only when it's gone'? That's the way I used to set reverbs...
Way too far away to hear it on the air (Too much Spanish chatter), and that's a shame.
And having Big 10 come back just one more time... Man, that'd be great!
Click to expand...

Took the 500GB drive to work today and listened to the rewind from start to Landeckers 7pm hour (when I caught it live Monday afte getting home)....Sure enough, John stated there WAS a reverb on WLS and he has the tapes to prove it; was wanting anyone to take him to court on that because as he put it, he would walk out with all the cash (as if HE needs any)....I think they had it too hot especially on the high end...and the stream feed was sooo screwed up (in Landecker's shift start, you DONT hear the background crowd, etc...just Landecker...luckily I DID get it last year...but this year, it was NOT ALLLLLLLLLLLLL RIGHT!!! :) and yes I would be cocky too!!!!! love that bit.......and that didnt make it to the stream!! The board ops think they are professionals and probably call themselves engineers?? ENGINEER MY A$$!!! As the Grobster ranted about, its Chicago, not Paduka, Iowa!! (loved his rant...especially since ESPN is somewhat still a sister group....though not controlled or owned by Citadel but Disney still has stock, etc in ABC Radio....so step sister???) Man, my spkrs were smoking after that rant!!! But I LOVED it.....he said what is true in a LOT of markets!!!

I would LOVE to engineer the 2009 Rewind personally..I GUARANTEE the stream would sound just like OTA and the reverb would NOT be that bad.....its NOT THAT HARD, folks....split the head phones; One ear on the over the air monitor, the other on the stream audio before the encoder......geesh not a problem!! and you can easily tell if something is off that way!! Hey Warren, (and I feel for ya man since they slashed your real engineer staff a while back!!!), just buy my air ticket and Im your board ENGINEER for the 19hrs.....I still have my ABC badge somewhere and interviewed for an asst CE job with Citadel (but not enough money for me to make the move then)...half the 5AM special was shot to hell BTW on the stream.....there was hum, no program audio, and in WEEEE background, I can hear............IMUS!!!! but no Jeff Davis until about 5:30 or so.....that sucked bigtime!!!! Luckily I have the special on harddrive from last year so I need to edit that one for those who requested it....it's not 44.1/16bit stereo but its AM quality (I think I used 22kHz sampling last year)...AudioGrabber worked like a champ this year....got the right settings for silence to start a new track (and that was mostly between commercials at the news breaks!) Easy to edit them out and just have music/news and DJs! Audacity screwed up at one point and I lost a couple of hours of recording between 3 and 7 PM....but I am happy with what I have...and plenty of drive space for next year; added the other 500GB to the home server today for RAID 5; thanks Fry's!!! 500Gb Maxtor for $79?? Oh yeah! I still have empty bays in the server...just need to upgrade the power supply :)
 
A friend of mine who is production director at WLS told me that the streamed spots are different from the aired spots.
The reverb was on the entire signal, except for the streamed spots.
Last year's stream sounded better than this years. In fact, it sounded like a well-processed AM! This years' was still mono, but had the (ridiculous) reverb and many buffering incidents. The after 7PM audio snafus had to be as described above... No audio from the offending pot, just the sound of the reverb return. My guess is that Landecker's show used a source not used earlier in the day and someone didn't notice that the aux feed to the stream was turned down.
I'd like to know when WLS used reverb. I listened for over 20 years and don't remember any...
 
I don't know the exact dates but based on airchecks WLS had reverb from 74 to the mid eighties.

CW you hit the nail on the head on how it should have been done. This is what happens when the engineering staff is sacrificed for a VP's end of year bonus.
 
radiorob2.0 said:
I don't know the exact dates but based on airchecks WLS had reverb from 74 to the mid eighties.

CW you hit the nail on the head on how it should have been done. This is what happens when the engineering staff is sacrificed for a VP's end of year bonus.
Click to expand...

AMEN!!!

When I did my first big remote, it was an all day affair in Dallas.....the jocks were doing it from the Starplex via Marti...I wired the Mackie for IFB via the UHF talkback radio which had NEVER been used before...they loved it!! and it all ran smooth.....the afternoon guy (Race Taylor) told me that was the best engineered remote he had ever done to that point in his career....he now works at WPLJ in NY. My next remote was from Vegas on ISDN......it worked like a champ and I had IFB from the studio as well as return non IFB program audio fed to a powered spkr for the local audience to hear it all....but of course the delay was a little annoying to the folks in the audience at Vegas.....but they got to see how it all worked and the air staff was happy...and that's what counts! Making it SOUND RIGHT.....and of course what happened to me? I get canned later on a lie (AND GOT UNEMPLOYMENT so the firing was not a valid one) while the GM drove in his new 80k Beamer.....hmmmmmmm how nice....Radio USED to be fun......I have a better job and a better boss now...and my 401K pays better than any broadcaster did!

I feel for Warren....he has his hands full at LS and the other stations.....I think I heard they used to have 9 full time engineers at one time...now its Warren and maybe one asst???? EGADS!!! It should be ONE engineer PER station PERIOD...not per cluster, per STATION...and they dont pay enough these days for what those poor guys have to do in OT (and not legally getting paid for it in a lot of cases too!)

BUT I would still offer to run the board at a LS rewind for FREE....just to spend that one day in Heaven!! :)
 
Re: Life is a Rock, W-L-S Rolled Me!

MN Maniac said:
America's "A Horse With No Name" was played during Chuck Knapp's shift. I could have swore I heard clicks, pops, and scratches. As in the kind we used to get from vinyl records. WLS doesn't still have a turntable in the air studio, DO they?
Click to expand...

I'll check my HD copy and see.....Do you remember about what time it was???
 
Gosh, I'd build up a Hammond spring reverb unit for 'em for free that would sound like the old days.
Well, a single unit to feed both L+R. I see no need for 2 seperate channels through reverb.

As busy as I am I'd find time to help WLS sound better. I grew up just over the Indiana line, and my oldest memories of
WLS include the perfect mild reverb, from as far back as I can remember, until they went talk.
It's was so well controlled you almost didn't notice it unless it was gone.

But I could hear it on even crystal radios. The one song for sure I know made a huge difference was Yummy Yummy Yummy, Ohio Express.
The original Buddah release was dead flat. WLS had the biggest reverb ever in 66-69. The reverb had made a huge differnce in this song
becoming a hit. The later releases all had reverb as heard on WLS and other stations.

If Warren Schulz is reading this, I hereby offer any free asssistance I can provide, in such free time as I have.
I deplore the lack of money for engineering but would glady help in any way possible.

I almost wuz gonna run tape, but was too busy getting a transmission out of a car.
 
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